How lupulin 'Cyro Hops' are changing the beer brewing industry

The concept of making beer hasn't changed much in several hundred years but the methods recently have. While hops have been used for many a year, one company in America might have found a way for a genuine step change in hop use with their innovation of collecting lupulin powder.

You might already know that lupulin is the part of the hops that brewers utilised to make beers hoppy as that's where the good alpha acids for brewing come from.

In case you didn't know, the alpha acids are converted into bitter iso-alpha acids during the brewing process, and essential oils and are what give beers their varying hoppy qualities.

YCH Hops, a grower-owned hop supplier based in Washington, America has created a new process where the lupulin is extracted from the hops and is collected in powder form and marketed as Cyro Hops.

You might well ask, what's the point of this?

Efficiency gains in making beer are the short answer.

Beer hops are often made into pellets form for distribution and preservation. The process of making the pellets actually breaks down the acids and oils meaning the effect on the beer requires more hops than one perhaps needs. Enter lupulin powder which has the superior percentage of 'herbs and spices' over hop pellets meaning that less quantity is required.

Ekuanot hops are quite popular

YCH boasts that their product "offers twice the resin content of traditional whole-leaf and hop pellet products" which basically means you only need to use half as much.

YCH Hops initially started to market their powdered 'Cyro Hops' with the brand name "LupuLN2" to commercial brewers in America. The reviews are in and breweries switching as result.

How is lupulin powder made into cryo hops?

The powder extraction process is simple in concept. The collected hops are subjected to cold temperatures inside a nitrogen atmosphere. This limits any oxidation of the sensitive resins and oils in the hop. The hops are 'chilled and milled' and the lupulin is forced from the lupulin gland.

What variety of cyro hops are there?

The benefits of using Cryo Hops

You can see the appeal for commercial brewers - less volume means better storage and transportation costs.

The other benefit of the powder is that their use in place of traditional hops means less 'green material' is left in the beer, improving clarity by reducing sedimentation and better beer brightness.

You can see why home brewers who don't have commercial means of clearing beer will love using the powder!

I haven't found any information how long the powder can be used before it loses its potency.
Given the apparent early success of lupulin powder with the American brewers that have used it, we expect that its popularity will slowly begin to spread across the Continent and then the rest of brewing communities the world over - provided it's sold at a cost-effective price relative to the economics of using traditional hop pellets it should do well - indeed the prices on Amazon seem pretty fair.

The Mark II Keg and Carboy washer is ideal for the homebrewer with kegs

Any experienced beer brewer will tell you that cleaning your equipment is one of the most important parts of making beer. If your keg or carboy is dirty, you'll run the risk of contaminating your beer.

This is why keg washers are a handy way to ensure your gear is clean, free of gunk and ready to receive your golden ales.

Kegs washing machines reduces the time it takes to clean and sanitize your kegs, carboys, and buckets and the Mark II Keg Washer is ideal.

To use the Mark II, simply fill the reservoir with cleaner or sanitizer, place the vessel to be cleaned over the sprayer, and plug it in. This great automated device frees you to complete other tasks while it works. You can save on cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, by spraying the cleaning solution on the entire inner surface you use.

The reservoir also contains space to soak small items like airlocks and stoppers.

"Why didn’t I buy this sooner? The keg and carboy washer is amazing. It works flawlessly and it seems to be built well. After 2 broken backs, no more lifting of full 6.5 gallon carboys is darn appealing. It saves on water and cleaner too. Great investment!"

"A must-have if you use Corny kegs - it gets the valves, diptubes and poppits very clean without having to disassemble, though I still do disassemble after every couple of uses. Saves time with carboys too, though the tough gunk still needs the brush. Haven't used on buckets - no real point IMO."

Bud Light is number 5 so I'll give you some credit there but Stella Artois?

I had no idea it was such a popular beer in America! And given how ordering from Amazon is pretty much a way of life in the states, taking Amazon's list of popular selling beers as a proxy for popularity, we see that Stella Artois is a very popular beer in America.

Why is this?

Yes, when served at a cold temperature, it's an easy to drink beer that's pleasant enough.

But in the modern beer drinking climate, where every man and his homebrew kit is a critic, how is this beer Amazon's champion seller?

Legend has it, this beer was first brewed in 1336 as under German Beer Purity Laws and has been produced unchanged ever since.

A little bit of research tells us that Stella Artois has been making great in roads into the American beer market over the last decade. It's said that the beer gain popularity about 20 years ago due to its 5 percent alcohol content and fair price point.

The beer earned the nickname 'wife beater' due to the connotations of drunken men who've spent all day at the soccer match drink the stuff and then taking whatever their issues were out on their partners.

Steinlager in New Zealand has the same reputation - the concept being traditional mass-produced beers are 4 percent and when drinks switch to 5 percent they cannot handle their piss and do stupid things. We call bullshit, getting drunk is getting drunk and the choices you make are because you are an asshole if you are violent when drunk.

Stella Artois managed to re-brand itself as something a 'bit special' and has an image, especially around the world as a high-end beer.

An example of this is that it was marketed as 'reassuringly expensive' in adds such as the famous 'Papa et fils' add campaign:

Classic.

But that's not necessarily the reason people drink the beer is that for those that enjoy a quality European style pilsner, Stella Artois fits the bill, especially with it inoffensive Saaz hops.

If you simply brewed malt with sugar you will get a beer but your beer’s mouthfeel will be closer to feeling like water. Which is just wrong, as a full-bodied beer enhances the drinking experience!

To get an improved mouthfeel, many beer brewers use an ‘enhancer’ to do exactly what it says it will do – enhance the beer by giving it greater body and mouthfeel.

Beer enhancers are made of basic ingredients, being a mix of fermentable and non-fermentable. They usually contain a mix of dextrose and maltodextrin.

Such beer enhancers work the dextrose serving as the food for the yeast and are thus used in the fermentation process. The maltodextrin does not ferment and thus forms part of the beer solution giving the beer mouthfeel and a true sense of body. It also has the benefit of allowing the poured beer to have a good head of foam and to retain it. I have no idea how the science of this part works!

The combination of dextrose and maltodextrin suits the lighter style beers such as pilsner, draught, and lagers.

If you are brewing an ale or a beer where you desire a full, maltier flavor an enhancer that also has an element of light dry malt extract will be what you need.This is often simply referred to as DME.Some beer enhancers also have hops added to match the kind of beer style so if you are ordering from an online store, check that the particular enhancer's hops matches the kind of beer you are trying to make.

'Branded' beer enhancers

The Australian beer making company, Coopers, offer two well-known beer enhancers to help achieve these goals. They are simply known as Brew Enhancer 1 and Brew Enhancer 2. What is the difference between enhancer one and two? The difference between the two is one suits a lager, the other ales. You can imagine the salty old brewer that came up with those very telling names! Coopers include the enhancers with their beer kits but you can buy them separately too. I've often seen them in supermarkets for a reasonable price (and reviewed them!) Side note - never do a Coopers Lager Kit without an enhancer, I have and trust me the results are rubbish. The result was the beer having very little body and the flavor could have been stronger.

There are some other popular enhancer brands out there too. Muntons, Young's and Copper Tun are well known and trusted by many brewers.

Using spraymalt to add body to beer

You may have also heard the word 'spraymalt'. It can be used as an alternative to standard beer enhancer. Spraymalt is a specially prepared kind of DME. Drying is achieved by the use of a spraydrier, a process which produces particularly uniform powders both in terms of particle size and flavor. This means a spraymalt beer will be less dry than beers that simply use sugar. Or you can add spraymalt in addition to the sugar for more effect on the taste or your beer.

The beauty of the dextrose is that it is apparently a more favored food of the yeast when compared to ordinary sucrose sugar and so fermentation will commence more quickly. Whether that makes a difference, I don't know however using too much sugar gives the beer too much a citrus flavor which can be off-putting.Many beer supply shops will carry the ingredients you need. That way you can get the advantage of buying in bulk so to reduce your brewing costs.Adding beer enhancer will likely increase the alcohol production of the yeast as well!

When do I add beer enhancer?

But at what cost to my beer?

Adding a brew enhancer to your brew does add to the cost per glass somewhat, however, given that enhancers actually really do work (I use them every time I brew), it's my view and that of thousands of other home brewers, that the taste and body improvements are very worth it.

If your enhancer costs 8 dollars and you make 23 liters, that’s only 35 cents extra per liter. Naturally, mileage may vary depending on what brand and at what price you’ve purchased!

If you’re not interested in making your own enhancer but think brand name enhancers are too expensive, there is a happy medium. Many beer shop suppliers will do the mixing for you and sell you a 1Kg bag of no frills beer enhancer.

Brewing with fruit all about exploring what works for you

Are raspberries your favorite fruit in the world? Then try making a raspberry stout!

Got some more eclectic fruit preferences? How about an elderberry ale?

That's the beauty of brewing with fruit - there are some many arrangements, styles, and combinations that there's a fruit brew for everyone.

The fruits most commonly used in fruit beers are raspberries, cherries, apples, and citrus fruits.

The point is you can use any fruit you like, it's your beer. Some fruits of course work better with certain beers but the world's your oyster in that regard - brewing is your hobby, after all, you can do whatever you like.

So the first question would be fruit brewers often ask is:

Should I use fresh fruit with my home brew?

You might have heard the expression "fresh is best" when it comes to using cryo hops but when making a fruit beer, you need to consider that fresh fruit can have some issues

Taking the fruit right from the orchard or vine without some form of treatment makes some brewers nervous - as they are trying to avoid wild yeasts. This has meant several practices have been developed to treat fresh fruit.

So the options which we will now examine are:

boiling

freezing

pasteurization

and being brave

Should I boil the fruit in the wort?

There are two schools of thought about adding fruit to the boil.

Many brewers will do it to ensure that any bacteria present are destroyed because nothing is as disheartening to discover your beer is infected and ruined!

And in that sense, it will work but there are certainly a few drawbacks.

Boiling fruit releases the pectin in the fruit and that will likely cloud your beer, giving it a cloudy haze that many brewers wish to avoid. It can also well as attribute to off-flavors despite the intention of boiling to release flavour.

Soft fruits like cherries, grapes, and strawberries contain smaller amounts of pectin than other citrus fruits like pears, apples, guavas, quince, plums, gooseberries, and oranges so you can way that up in your decision to boil or not.

If you insist you need to add fruit during the boil what you can do is steep your fruit in the hot wort, or add it directly to the fermenter at the right time. If you are going to steep your fruit, place whole, fresh fruit in a nylon or muslin bag and place it in.

So if you have decided not to boil your fruit what can you do?

Should I freeze the fruit before using it?

If the thought of boiling your fruit is too much you can totally freeze the fruit. It's a really common and trusted practice in the beer brewing community.

The night before you think it's time to add it to the batch (post-primary fermentation), begin to slowly thaw it out in the fridge. It will then be ready when you need it.

Freezing the fruit is not a complete guarantee against no contamination, but it will reduce the potential risk of infection occurring.

Oddly, freezing can also help with getting the fruit's flavors out of the fruit and into the beer. This is because the water inside the cells of the fruit crystallizes and expands. This process bursts the cell walls and in a sense, it mashes the fruit from the inside out. You can compare this to the freeze thaw action of ice on rock!

How to pasteurize fruit for brewing

In most civilized countries, the law requires that milk is pasteurized prior to sale to prevent bacteria such as salmonella, e. coli, and listeria from harming the general population. That suggests that fruit could benefit from pasteurization before it is added to the beer.

Basically, you use a low heat to kill the bugs. Puree your fruit so that it nice and smooth (so it can be cooked through). You pasteurized it by heating on the stove in a pot at 80 Centigrade for 30 minutes at a constant temperature.

That should take care of the bugs - it's now time to add the fruit to your beer.

If you make the fruit too hot, you will have the same effect as boiling and pectins will be released.

Being fearless and chucking the fruit it the fermenter

There's certainly nothing wrong add your fruit in sans boil or freezing. If you are adding it post primary fermentation, the alcohol present can protect against infection.

I guess you could always give the fruit a quick soak in some Star San or similar for a short while.

Pureéing fruit for brewing in a blender

If you are going to pureé your fruit - use a good blender. One that has of course been sanitized with something like sodium percarbonate!

This reminds me to share that I once read of a guy who when blending would add a cup of vodka to the fruit to try and kill any bacteria!

I reason this could kind of work and the vodka wouldn't add any unintended flavour to the beer.

You should, of course, wash the fruit thoroughly and then remove any stems, leaves and pits or seeds before blending.

Can I use dehydrated fruit with beer?

You sure can add dehydrated fruit to beer. It's less mess but if you going to pulp it up, you might need to blend it with some water.

When do I add fruit to your beer?

We've talked about it about but let's get into some detail.

So if you haven't boiled the fruit in the wort when do you add it?

Kind of like dry hopping, many brewers report that you tend to get the best results if you add the fruit about one week prior bottling rather than adding it directly to the wort on brew day (either before or after the boil).

The reason for this is that the processes of the primary fermentation can strip out the flavors of the fruit.

So to that end, a good time to add the fruit is after primary fermentation is complete - so take your hydrometer and do your readings - when you have two or three identical readings you have your final gravity and can you add the fruit.

Adding during secondary fermentation has the added benefit that you are adding the fruit to a known solution of alcohol - which will help kill and work against any bacteria that may be sneaking in on the fruit.

Some punters remove the skins from the fruit

If you are making a nice plum lager out of some ripe Black Doris, you might want to think about peeling the skins due reduce of a wild yeast like brettanomyces which is usually found on the skins of fruit.

It's interesting to note that Brettanomyces were first discovered by scientist N. Hjelte Claussen in 1904 at the Carlsberg Brewery - he was investigating the 'Brett' as a cause of spoilage in English ales.

It's worth noting that while Brett is considered a contaminant in beer, it is a vital component of the wine making process for many winemakers.

That was a slight detour - the key point is that if you want to reduce the chance of naturally occurring yeasts getting into your beer, strip the fruit of its skin if you can - might be hard if you're making a cherry beer!

How much fruit should be added to the beer?

A rule of thumb is to consider how sweet your fruit is. If you have a very sweet fruit, such as cherries, you might want to add less to your beer than you would say a peach.

The truth is that amount of fruit to add varies according to the desired intensity of flavour and aroma, but for a medium intensity, you should add ½ pound of fruit per gallon of beer for strongly flavored fruits like raspberries and up to 2 pounds (1 Kg approx) per gallon for fruits like peaches or melon which you could consider have a milder, less tart flavor.

If I can't get fresh fruit, what else can I use?

Given fruit is quite a seasonal item, there are other fruit based options available. You can add concentrates, purées or juices to your beer - they've been well processed by the time they get to you via the supermarket so you can skill the boil or freezing parts of the processes and add them just prior to secondary fermentation.

If you simply want a flavour, you can use artificial ones or extracts, just remember they do not contribute to the body or 'mouth feel' like real fruit will.

How long should I bottle condition fruit beer for?

Bottled beer usually takes around three weeks to get to the prime drinking period, regardless of whether it has fruit in it or not.

In our case, at least a month of bottle conditioning will give plenty of time for the yeast and other floaties to fall to the bottom of the beer as sediment (remember, you can always cold crash before bottling). This will also give the fruit plenty of time to become one with the base beer flavours.

Go forth an experiment, young padawan!

The wonderful thing about beer makers is they love to experiment - there's something special about brewers who are willing to try new things and to mix up their norms - using fruit is a great way to do that as there are many combinations of fruit and beer types that offer even the most casual brewer a chance to produce a fun tasting beer.

I made my wort and then I dryhopped the whole packet of Riwaka hops pellets. Gosh, they smelled like beer heaven. At a pinch you could probably substitute some Saaz hops as Riwaka was born out of the Saaz variety but the point of this exercise is to try what the random dude on social media suggested...

I then wrapped the fermenter in some old sheets and left it in my man shed for a week. The first day I went in to check that fermentation was occurring, my nostrils were swamped with that delicious hops smell that had just enveloped the whole room and I could hear the airlock bubbling away quite happily.

Winning.

So, after one week the bubbling had died down to a slow occasional blip, so I decided to bottle.

I've recently been doing a bit of a cheat when it comes to bottling my beer. Despite recommending it elsewhere on this site, I've become lazy in a sense. What I do after each bottle has been emptied of its liquid gold, I rinse it out at the kitchen bench, adding in some washing up soap and using the bottle brush as need be.

The bottle then gets a spin in the dishwasher. My theory is the heat from the dishwasher kills any nasty germs that are lurking. Be clear though, it's not likely much hot water is getting into the bottles to help clean them, it's the heat that I am after.

I then store the washed bottles in a 50-litre washing basket with a sheet over the top and use as required.

If I start to notice a few bottles tasting a little off, I know that it's time to do a proper sanitization where the bottles are soaked in sodium percarbonate for a couple of hours at a minimum.

Phew, we wandered off the track there a bit!

Where was I?

Ah yes, bottling.

I batch primed the brew with 80 grams of sugar, capped the bottles and put them back in the shed for some alone time in the dark.

Now, I know that the seasonal warmth coming into summer is not really the ideal time for making a lager. Anyways, this patient brewer will wait and see how my Golden Riwaka Lager pans out.

-

So, it’s been a couple of weeks and I’ve had a chance to sample the batch.

I placed a bottle in the fridge overnight and sampled it with my dinner.

Holy shit, I made a damn good beer. That random dude on social media has stumbled on an amazing combination of ingredients.It's a little fruity as the hops are quite strong. It has a good mouthfeel for a kit lager. It feels fresh on the mouth and as a real summer beer vibe. It looks like the 80 grams of sugar was just right as the beer has a good amount of bubbles that continue to rise up in the glass. Given its nature, this beer is definitely best served cold. Would I brew this again? Most definitely but I would reduce the hop level, a whole bag of Riwaka felt like overkill but that's down to personal taste. The choice is yours.

Have you ever opened a home brewed beer and it just gushed out like a pent up volcano that just had to blow its load?

It's hugely disappointing.

You've put in all that effort to may you brew and then it literally just splashes all over the kitchen sink or worse in front of your mates you're having some beers and BBQ with.

So what can you do about bottle gushers or 'bottle bombs' ?

There's a couple of ways to prevent gushers and they are pretty simple.

Clean your brewing equipment to prevent gushers

The first one, which isn't a solution but a warning, is to ensure that you have maintained excellent santization practices with your brewing.

There is nothing more disappointing than realizing your brew has been contaminated with infection when you open bottle after bottle and be confronted with a mass of foam that gives Old Faithful in Yellowstone park a run for it's money.

You were not a patient grass hopper

If you bottled your beer before primary fermentation had finished you run the risk of gushers.

If this is the case, you can simply vent your beer by opening the beer cap very slightly letting the CO2 escape. You can then re cap the bottle.

It's getting hot in here...

I also have a theory about gushers but I don't have any proof or evidence that I'm right but I think that if you open 'warm' beer, it is more likely to gush. When I say warm beer, I simply mean beer that hasn't spent a day in a fridge chilling out.

I did an accidental experiment the other week when I noticed I had a couple of gushers in a recent brew. It was the first opening of a new batch so I was a bit disappointed. The next night I put two bottles in the fridge and had a cracked one open the after work the next day.

Be careful

Several brews ago I walked into my 'man shed' where I keep my beer and I thought a nuclear 'beer bomb' had been set off. There was green and brown glass everywhere and the smell of beer in the air.

What had happened was my beer had actually become infected and the CO2 build up from a run away yeast had caused a beer to explode.

I suspect that the explosion caused a minor chain reaction of sorts and the bottles closest to the original exploding bottle blew up due to the fragments of glass that flew their way at presumably very hostile speeds!